Disklavier

I suppose I should have added "nearly" to my answer as well... Or 
should I really have? Quite obviously, the Macintosh could be 
programmed to write the said floppy disk, in exactly the same way as 
Yamaha chose to write a PC program. In fact, the hardware 
capabilities of earlier Macintosh models (up to the beige PowerMacs 
G3 or so), were better than PC's and all accessible by software (with 
MacOS up to version 9.x).

But all this is academic. You can try using virtual PC as suggested, 
but I too am afraid that it won't work. You can also try to find a 
friend with a PC. In any case, I strongly suggest that you loudly 
protest with Yamaha for this discrimination against Macintoshes.

Finally, if you are ready to send me the files (and your address), I 
can see what I can do, including use my PC to generate the floppy 
disk for you.

At 11:33 +0000 15/04/02, disklavier@yahoogroups.com wrote:
>Message: 4
>    Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 21:25:56 EDT
>    From: PianoBench@...
>Subject: Re: Re: Macintosh
>
>Good evening, everyone.
>
>In a message dated 4/14/02 6:12:26 PM, slickfix@... writes:
>
><< I have downloaded music from  Yamaha musicsoft and you must download
>the installer program in order to download the file. Its not just
>downloading a midi file, as the program formats and then does a floppy
>disk write to the disk, Not the HD. SO if there is not an installer
>program for the MAC that is the problem.
>
>Also I believe the disk when written is in Yamaha disklavier ESEQ
>format so you cannot even read the disk unless you have a disklavier
>or a special drive conversion program, as the first sector of the
>floppy is wiped. >>
>
>Good thing that I said, "Nearly everything that you might want to do from a
>computer with a Disklavier
>is possible using a Macintosh," in my earlier post.
>
>You are correct. Due to the copy-protection scheme that Yamaha has chosen to
>use for its software download procedure, it is either impossible for the same
>results to be achieved on a Macintosh or Yamaha chose not to go to the exp
>ense of programming such a solution for the Mac.
>
>On a related subject, some years ago I spoke with Gary Geibler about the way
>in which his conversion program reads Yamaha's older DD Disklavier disks. He
>said that he was able to write a DOS program to do this because he could use
>the computer's BIOS to access the floppy drive hardware directly. The Mac OS
>did not give him a similar way to do this, therefore his program would not do
>the same under emmulation on the Mac.
>
>It would be interesting to try VirtualPC on the Mac with this downloader
>program from YamahaMusicSoft. I doubt that it will run under emulation for
>similar reasons.
>
>Regards,
>PianoBench